Traditionally, an ophthalmic device, such as a contact lens and an intraocular lens include one or more biocompatible device(s) with corrective, cosmetic, or therapeutic functionality. A contact lens, for example, may provide one or more of: vision correcting functionality; cosmetic enhancement; and therapeutic effects. Each function provided by a physical characteristic of the lens. For example, a design incorporating a refractive quality into a lens can provide a vision corrective function, a pigment incorporated into the lens can provide a cosmetic enhancement, and an active agent incorporated into a lens can provide a therapeutic functionality.
More recently, it has been theorized that active components may be incorporated into a contact lens for a variety of applications. In other applications filed concurrently by the same inventive entity of the present invention, the inventor teaches methods and apparatus for the fabrication of energized ophthalmic lenses.
Furthermore, it is known in the medical field that many physiological phenomena depend on endogenous supply of electricity or a bioelectric current, such as is the case during wound healing. Wounds generate endogenous electric currents. Vital cells that help wound healing respond to the generated endogenous electric currents, and more importantly, to applied electric signals. More recently, it has been found by various research groups that changes in wound currents are correlated directly with the rate of wound healing in vivo and thus, pharmacologically enhancing or decreasing wound healing may be proportional to the induced electric currents respectively.
Particularly to the eye, corneal erosions may be the source of tremendous pain to a subject, notably those experiencing recurrent erosions on their ocular surface. Erosions on an ocular surface can be the result of a variety of things, for example by a medical condition present in the patient's eye or induced in the process of medical treatment of the patient's eye.
Because the cornea is the tissue of the body that is most richly innervated by sensory nerves, the damage to the epithelium and the exposure of these nerve endings are associated with tremendous pain to the subject and may cause neurogenic inflammation until the epithelium can be sufficiently healed.
In such situations, it would be desirable to promote prompt healing of the ocular surface and notably mitigate inflammation-induced damage to the ocular surface and/or shorten the discomfort associated with the wounded eye. Such discomfort may cause eye rubbing and excessive blinking by the individual causing increased irritation and further inflaming the epithelium. In addition, ocular infections are associated with much risk of vision loss and thus may require fast and effective delivery of an anti-infectious agent to the eye.
As a result, it is desirable to have additional methods and apparatus conductive to wound healing promotion, healing control and infection treatment, to an extent that is suitable for an ophthalmic lens.